M2M (machine-to-machine, machine-to-machine communications) means that data is automatically transmitted from one terminal to another terminal without human involvement. In other words, M2M is a dialogue between machines, and M2M is also referred to as the Internet of things (Internet of Things).
In an M2M communication process, a large amount of M2M information is generated. Such information needs to be transmitted based on a communication system. That is, M2M is communication between machines, but still needs to be managed by a network side. An existing mobile communication network becomes a most popular and most promising technology for bearing and transmitting M2M information because no cable deployment is required and a coverage area is large. In addition, with a continuous increase of a mobile communication network bandwidth and increasing diversification of a terminal, a data service capability is improved continuously, which may further accelerate development of an M2M application.
In the future, M2M communication will be introduced to all industries, and for various different applications, mass terminals in trillions will be introduced at the same time. The introduction of such mass terminals raises a higher requirement on a management capability of a network side and increases a transmission load between a network and a terminal at the same time. To optimize the management capability of the network side and optimize signaling/data transmission between the network and the terminal, in a case where no data needs to be transmitted, only a signaling connection on a control plane may be maintained between the terminal and the network. In this case, the terminal can receive only an instruction delivered by the network side, but cannot transmit data on a service layer. In this way, when the terminal needs to transmit data on the service layer, it is required to “wake up” the terminal first. That is, a connection on a data plane is established for the terminal to trigger sending of data of the terminal. However, in an actual application, it may be necessary to trigger multiple terminals first to carry out a certain service. In this case, in the prior art, there is no corresponding solution about how to trigger multiple MTC devices.
For example, in M2M communication for a power system, to obtain electric meter readings of a community, all electric meters in the community need to be woken up to transmit data to an MTC server (Machine Type Communications Server, machine type communications server) of the power system. In this case, a problem of how to trigger sending data of these electric meters needs to be solved.